Ramana Vieira of Vacaville, a convincing practitioner of fado, a sort of melancholy Portuguese people music, has launched her fifth album, “Tudo De Mim” (All of Me), and can carry out Saturday night time at Journey Downtown.
(File picture/ Ramana Vieira)

Fall 2022 and winter and spring of the brand new yr gave rise to studio time and the recording of Ramana Vieira’s new and fifth fado album, “Tudo De Mim” (All of Me), a time and the inventive course of she likened to “birthing a child” and “a gestation” — its precise due date unpredictable.

Vieira, a persuasive practitioner of fado, a sort of melancholy Portuguese people music, says the 10-song report — with first tracks recorded final fall and eventually launched May 1 — is themed round reminiscences of current travels to Portugal, Madeira, a Portuguese island within the japanese Atlantic and off the coast of Morocco, and Hawaii.

During an hourlong interview Tuesday from her Vacaville house, she confirmed the brand new music additionally considerations the fantastic thing about the jacaranda, a tree native to Brazil that produces clusters of aromatic purple blooms that she noticed on the Pacific Ocean chain of islands.

Vieira, who has booked a CD launch present Saturday at Journey Downtown in Vacaville, stated in a earlier interview with The Reporter that the tree’s magnificence “haunted” her.

On the brand new recording, she explores the shapes of her reminiscences and tunes that mirror extra present happenings in her life in songs in each Portuguese and English, lots of them authentic compositions but in addition some covers, together with at the least one by Amalia Rodrigues, maybe probably the most well-known fado artist on the earth.

The album, she added, “expresses my love of fado music and my global approach to pop music,” in the identical means two different fado artists, Ana Moura and Mariza, each natives of Portugal, “have morphed into their own creations and identities.” She has met them each.

“We’ve progressed from the fado base and we’ve gone on,” stated Vieira, a mezzo-soprano whose vocals are freighted with heft and energy. “I’m not the only one. We’ve modeled the form and mirrored it back.”

Vieira, who, in recent times, has carried out in Macau, New York City, and Hawaii, “dipped into” her Catholic upbringing on “Mother Mary,” a music that she beforehand described as casting a watch on “the divine female.”

“It’s just a tribute to all the mothers of the world,” she stated of the music, including, “We need to salute the mothers of the world,” and mentioning her mom is known as Mary.

Other songs embrace “Fado La La La,” “Jacaranda,” “Please Love Me Forever,” “Verdes Anos” (Green Years), and Rodrigues’ “Trago Fado nos Sentidos” (I Bring Fado into the Senses).

Last yr throughout a visit to Portugal, Vieira visited the fado icon’s house, the place she noticed her wardrobe, her awards, her front room, her assortment of Japanese antiques, and her parrot, nonetheless alive, in a cage within the kitchen. She additionally noticed Rodrigues’ memoirs, her books, her efficiency costumes.

In her dwell reveals, reminiscent of one final yr within the Sebastopol Center for the Arts in Sebastopol, she sang a Rodrigues tune, so the go to to her idol’s house was a part of a private journey and tribute to the famed singer.

“It was like going to Elvis’ Graceland,” she stated throughout a earlier interview. “It was such a profound experience being in the home,” evaluating it to “a three-story San Francisco Victorian.”

Vieira will return to Madeira for a fado competition in August, performing with a conventional fado trio and singing some songs by Rodrigues.

Fado, its title roughly translating as destiny or future, is a musical glimpse into Portuguese individuals, their roots music. It may be likened to American blues, or what tango is to Argentina, flamenco to Spain.

By all accounts, the enchantment of fado — pronounced “FAH-doh” — with mysterious origins traced to early Nineteenth-century Portugal and having fun with a rising fan base within the United States (even Madonna sang fado throughout her “Madame X” tour a number of years in the past), is in its melodies, the hummable elements of every music.

The music is seductive, passionate, and plaintive, but in addition poetic and dramatic. More than anything, there are love songs of tragedy and longing, or “saudade” in Portuguese, Vieira, a local of San Leandro and an alumnus of the American Conservatory Theater program in San Francisco, stated in beforehand.

References to fado in Portugal surfaced as early because the 1820s, the music sung by ladies lamenting their misplaced males at sea, or of a hardscrabble rural or metropolis life, however its roots might have Moorish influences, too.

While the style has its traditions, Vieira, within the earlier interview, stated she considers her fado stylings “contemporary fado,” the place the outdated world meets the brand new, very very similar to the strategy taken by Moura and Mariza, all of them indebted to Rodrigues, who died in Lisbon in 1999 at age 79. While some males additionally sing fado, it’s best recognized right this moment due to its feminine artists.

Vieira, who additionally performs piano throughout her dwell performances, has launched 4 albums: “Sem Ti” (Without You), “Despi A Alma” (roughly translated as Bare Soul), “Lagrimas De Rainha (Tears of the Queen), and “Fado Da Vida” (Destiny of Life). They are proof that Vieira not solely pays homage to Rodrigues but in addition alerts that she will compose authentic fado music. Notably, her authentic composition, “Unido Para Amar,” was performed on the 2006 Olympics opening ceremony.

Pop, rock and jazz may be heard seeping into her sound, a few of it accessible on YouTube, and he or she counts amongst her influences U2, the Irish rock superstars, and Kate Bush, an English singer-songwriter. Ultimately, Vieira’s sound admittedly is one thing of a mix of U2, Bush and Rodrigues.

Vieira has carried out in musicals at California State University Hayward and at Ohlone Community College in Fremont. She can be a skilled dancer.

Following a Bay Area efficiency some years in the past, she was approached by a report producer who labored with reggae star Bob Marley. She finally acquired a suggestion from a San Francisco report label.

Like blues, fado is a sense, a sentiment, and greater than a set of notes. Its energy stems from the human spirit, Vieira, who just lately carried out Christian music at San Quentin jail as a part of a jail ministry.

At the Saturday present, her backing band will likely be Patrick Fahey, mandolin; David Parker, bass; and Joe Sam, drums.

“The band has had a facelift,” stated Vieira.

IF YOU GO
What: Ramana Vieira and Ensemble
A CD launch celebration
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday (doorways open at 6:30)
Where: Journey Downtown, 308 Main St., Vacaville
Tickets: $25 to $45
Online: www.journeydowntownvenue.com
and www.ramanavieira.internet